The DeKalb County Board of Education approved a resolution last week stating their opposition to a policy proposed by the state which could cause educators to lose their teaching license if the results of the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS) do not meet expectations.
School Board Member Charles Robinson brought the matter up at last Tuesday’s meeting, making it clear that he felt the board should speak out against the plan.
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby also expressed his displeasure with the plan, telling the assembly using TVAAS as punishment for teachers was unacceptable.
"Statistics say 44 percent of educators in Tennessee do not teach a tested subject, so it's not going to be equal for everybody,” The director said. “If 56 percent teach a tested subject and 44 percent don't, then everybody is not on the same playing field.
“We also have students who are more needy than others and those students cannot make the Achievement and Growth the same as other students and to take a teacher's license away because of that is not acceptable to me nor to a lot of other people, Willoughby said.
The director said that TVAAS was not intended to be used as punishment, but as a tool for growth.
“The straw that broke the camel's back was when the Commissioner of Education and the State Board of Education said they wanted to take licenses away from teachers because of a test score. We would love to have every teacher in our system, and the State of Tennessee, to score a five (the highest possible score) on Value Added (TVAAS) and a five on Achievement. That would be wonderful.
“This was set up years ago and Dr. William L. Sanders, who did the research, has told the state that this was never meant to be used the way it's being used,” Willoughby shared. “It was intended to be used to help educators improve on their teaching skills, on the strategies that they use, but it is now being used to take away a teacher's license if it goes forward. This has passed, but they have postponed it for a year.”
The Resolution reads:
“Whereas, a professional license is a qualification-based threshold for a profession and is not a measure of effectiveness of said professional; and
“Whereas, in the four state-approved evaluation models TVAAS only counts thirty- five percent of a teacher's effectiveness rating; and
“Whereas, state law for teacher evaluation will be superseded by State Board of Education rules; and
“Whereas, the state legislature has indicated that classroom observations should be the largest percentage of any teacher evaluation; and
“Whereas, Tennessee has changed its curricular standards multiple times in a short period of time; and
“Whereas, the predicting of student growth is more difficult to benchmark when standards are changed so often; and
“Whereas, teacher TVAAS scores can vary with little clarification of cause and there is no validated improvement plan for teachers from the Tennessee Department of Education; and
“Whereas, a teacher with a high TVAAS score can also have low proficiency ratings; and
“Whereas, a teacher with a low TVAAS score can also have high proficiency ratings; and
“Whereas, 44 percent of DeKalb County teachers have individual TVAAS scores by which they are rated indicating that not all teachers are evaluated equally; and
“Whereas, the National Research Council and the National Academy have indicated that value-added assessment is not stable enough for use in high-stakes evaluation and ‘20 years of TVAAS has told us almost nothing’ by Andy Spears (http://TNEDREPORT.COM/?PAGE? ID-HD-2); and
“Whereas, there is a lack of research indicating Common Core standards are age appropriate at all grade levels; and
“Whereas, teacher effectiveness is going to be determined from the results of tests that are yet to be created; and
“Whereas, baseline tests in primary grades are formatted differently, lack time requirements, and are overly dependent on student test-taking skills;
“Therefore, be it resolved that the DeKalb County Board of Education urges the General Assembly and the State Board of Education to oppose any proposal whereby a teaching license is issued, renewed, or denied based on results of the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System.”